Total War: Arena will be ceasing live service and operations in February 2019, according to a statement from Wargaming and Creative Assembly. The free-to-play titled originally launched back in February, so pretty mixed reactions. A lot of previews didn’t enjoy that the game was such a departure from the typical Total War formula.
The gameplay in Total War: Arena scrapped the strategic layer in favor of a slow progression system that many felt was an intentional cash-grab; and with commands reduced to a single unit in scope, players felt their agency was completely removed. All in all, the game failed to catch on, and will cease operations on February 22, 2019.
To give players one last hurrah for trying out the game, Creative Assembly is giving away some DLC packs for other games. All players can pick between Total War: Medieval 2 – Definitive Edition, Hannibal at the Gates for Rome 2, Age of Charlemagne for Attila and The Grim and the Grave for Total War: Warhammer.
Wargaming, a publishing partner on the project, will also be giving players bonuses. Anyone who took part in 100 matches in Total War: Arena will get a 30-day free Premium account upgrade for for World of Tanks, World of Warships, or World of Warplanes. And any purchased premium currency will be migrated to Wargaming titles in a 1:1 ratio.
Although sadly, new account registrations have been disabled, so don’t plan on joining now to try and game the system for free stuff. If you can claim said free content, head here to do it at the Creative Assembly site, and over here is the link to claim your Wargaming goodies.
This is the recent announcement from the official website:
ARENA has been on a long journey, and we are thankful to everyone who joined us. We have learned so much during the development of ARENA and we have grown incredibly close with the community and involved you deeply into our development process. It has been an absolute privilege to work with you all on this project, but unfortunately the results of ARENA Open Beta Test did not meet all our expectations.
